XPS 13 9300 and WD19TB linux problem

Me too, Dual Dell 4K setup, fine in windows, unstable in Ubuntu 20.04.

@ThornleyDTry running a single display on 1080p 60 Hz. Upon my testing anything above that is problematic.

Yes, same here, I have both displays configured to 2560x1140 (wouldn't work with anything higher) again, fine in Windows.

Last update,

Now my USB-C Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter arrived I can share my experience. The problem seems to be related to MST or bandwidth limits on Thunderbolt (on Linux specially).

On the dock itself (HDMI and both DP) you can only run a single display on 1080p 60Hz, nothing higher. I've tested a 1440p display and 1080p 120Hz without success. I don't think that it's related to the port, upon further investigation I was able to make it work fine trough both DP and HDMI, but only at 1080p 60Hz and a single display. My distro was defaulting to 120 Hz turning the same problems again, make sure that your display its at 60 Hz.

Using a USB-C Thunderbolt to HDMI/DP adapter you can drive another display trough the dedicated Thunderbolt port on any display settings (as far I've tested). Just remember that there's two ports behind the dock, one, close to the DP/HDMI, its a standard USB-C and share the same video bus as the DP/HDMI ports. You need to use the other one, the Thunderbolt port behind the dock, the one on the detachable module. Also make sure to buy a USB-C Thunderbolt to HDMI/DP because there's another USB-C to HDMI/DP that its DisplayLink and not Thunderbolt, although I didn't tested it has it own shares of problems under Linux.

The dock will still randomly reboots, once every 30 minutes more or less, seems to be tied to high usage on the laptop but using the settings above the screens always turn back on (at least with me). You can also unplug and plug again without rebooting. I've not tested sleep extensively, but seems to work. The displays took a while to respond back but they always turn back on.

Also, be aware that this is my own personal experience, I have no connection/affiliation to Dell and have no in depth knowledge of how this dock works internally, so the tips above may not work with you. I'm just another WD19TB user that figured out that this seems to work. I'm no way responsible for what you do with your dock or laptop.

@h0m3 

My experiance wiht the WD19TB dock seems faitly similar to you and have also come to same conclusion as you with regars to this being some sort of bandwidth/MST issue with Linux.

As a bit background I'm not using a XPS laptop but an X1 extream gen 2.  I was trying to run 2 Dell 2560x1440 monitors from it and 1 Dell 4k monitor.  It just would work only lasting 1-5 mintues before screens could go black.  Sometimes you could get them to come on again by plugging them from the dock or by unplugging the dock from the laptop sometimes not.  Sometimes a restart help, sometimes not.  This seem totally random on how to get them working again.

After getting a USB-C to HDMI cable and plugging my 4k monitor and plugging it into the second Thunderbolt port on the laptop things are much more stable.

However I also get the random disconnect from dock.  It feels like it powers down or something.  To get it back I usaly have to unplug the power from the dock and then unplug the thunderbolt cable.  Sometimes a restart is needed.

Whats interesting it always seems to happen when I boot a Java/Springboot app from VSCode, right when it binding to network interface.  So I'm wondering maybe (this is totally a guess) if its something to do with the USB network device (although as I'm wirting this I can't remember if I'm binding to 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 which would make difference, the loopback device should impact this, but all interfaces may).  I've currently disabled that and using the laptop wifi to see if it makes a difference.

To any more knowlagble people than me I have attached my dmesg/kern.log output from the time the dock last disconnected.  It start from when I switch to the dock with my KVM switch and you can see the USB devices connect okay.  `15:56:46` is when everything disconnects.  It then shows `thunderbolt 0-1: device disconnected` and starts spewing out `usb 3-2.3.4: Not enough bandwidth for altsetting 1` and `usb 3-2.3.4: 3:1: usb_set_interface failed (-19)` errors.

Hope this helps someone.

https://gist.github.com/kwlockwo/b0da4de262e8771b4ca6e5911ce24cb5

-- Keith

Hey everyone, I'm experiencing what I think is the same issue with my WD19TB and XPS 13 9300, running Arch Linux. My external monitors (one connected via DP and the other one via HDMI) are very unstable, almost unusable.

I have one thing to add: switching from X11 to Wayland seems to have solved it for me. I was using i3 on top of X11, and recently switched to Sway (which is basically i3 on top of Wayland). So far everything is running smoothly as expected.

Should something come up I'm going to come back here and let you know.

@samuelgrigolato I have only ever used Wayland (with GNOME) on my XPS 9300 with my WD19TB and there are still plenty of  problems, as you will also find, regardless of whether you use the DP or HDMI or (USB-C to DP/HDMI) ports.

I just switched to wayland and it does seem to be 'better', there are issues as mentioned by others. It does occasionally seem to not preserve the correct resolution on boot though. I currently have two 4K dell monitors and set them to 1440p and it seems ok at 60fps. 

I have been running the Wayland setup for a week now, here's what definitely improved:

- I am now able to disconnect and reconnect the dock and Sway will catch up automatically and the external monitors will sleep/resume as expected (this almost never worked with Xorg, it would always make both displays enter sleep mode forever);

- No more USB devices quickly and randomly restarting (not sure if it is related but I was experiencing this back when using Xorg);

- Applying resolution and screen position changes (via wdisplays now instead of xrandr) is way faster (this is less important as I don't do it that much). I remember xrandr commands failing at a 1/5 rate or so, something that also does not happen with wdisplays.

Now there's a problem that still happens from time to time (factor of ~1/5):

- When starting Sway (right after boot), the external monitors enter sleep mode even though wdisplays think they are up. This is one of the problems that happened with xrandr as well, but there was no surefire way to solve it back then. Now I can unplug the dock, wait for Sway to reorganize things, and plug the dock again. So far it always correctly identified and setup the screens as my previous choices. As it is only during boot, I have no apps open so I don't have the problem of apps moving around.

It is still a nuisance and I hope Dell finds a way to patch their firmware (or the Linux people, whoever owns the faulty code), but it is a manageable nuisance now, at least here for me.

@bulletmark that's odd.. maybe you could try going directly from the terminal into a clean Sway installation and see if it changes anything for you? Then if it works you know it is something else that is being called only during your regular GNOME session.

@samuelgrigolato my situation is not "odd". Plenty of others around various threads here and on other forums have reported similar problems using Linux with XPS 13 9300 and the WD19TB dock. What resolution are the 2 screens you are running? I run two Dell 2560x1440 screens both which take either HDMI or DP input. Sometimes the both black out for a few seconds but the dock/USB stays connected, and I see nothing in the system journal when that happens. Other times, the entire dock disconnects so the screen, network and USB devices all drop off of course and I see all the device disconnect and then reconnect messages in my journal. Both these problems are MUCH more likely to happen the the laptop is under load, i.e. when the fans are running although sometimes (rare) the screens/dock will drop out when doing almost nothing and no fans running. I find putting the second screen on the DP connector is more reliable than putting it on the HDMI connector. Running one screen directly from the other laptop port (i.e. via USB-C to DP cable so only 1 display is connected to the dock, either via HDMI or DP) has made it a bit more reliable but the problem(s) still happens.

The fact that the problems are much more likely to happen under load may hint to a power draw/supply issue through the dock but I find the problem can still happen if I connect the other laptop port to the power supply.

I have experimented with heaps of Linux boot options, one/some I think have improved things but the problem still persists.

It's such a pity because I upgraded from a 9380 (2018) straight to 9300 (2020) due to issues with thunderbolt. I also have a "work" XPS13 which is a 7930 (2019) and it runs significantly more stable on Ubuntu 20.04 with the same WD19. I suspect it is a combination of the new Intel Graphics chipset, and the 10th gen processor... Being all Dell gear though is disappointing, the problem is likely the linux kernel though. Windows runs awesome, but I try not to boot it too often. Other people can also try the oem kernel but I didn't have much luck with it, and I have also been monitoring launchpad for fixes to no avail...

Tested against Ubuntu 20.10 Beta, unfortunately similar, if not worse issues...

I have been a regular Dell XPS 13 user over the years. The 2020 is my fourth. All others.. Worked like a charm. 

This.. With the Dell WD19TB is a disaster. If Dell wants me to by another Dell laptop, or recommend Dell XPS to anyone from now on. Please look into this issue. 

Most often X crashes. Sometimes one or two USB-devices get lost. Sometimes all. Sometimes the dock needs a reboot. User experience... FRUSTRATING.

I have installed latest BIOS (1.2.0) to no help at all and running updated Fedora Linux 32 on a Intel® Core™ i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz × 8 Dell XPS 2020.